Diving In The Dark

Team Plunges Into Danger

It was not the typical call that firefighters get: The woman on the phone said two boys had pushed her sons' expensive bicycle into a lake behind their house.

Firefighters from Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue Station 51 rushed to the man-made lake west of Boca Raton and within minutes began their effort to fish the bike from the murky water.

During their attempt, the supervisor had an idea.

``I said `Gee, if our special operations guys are available, we could use them, and they could use this training,' '' Lt. Bruce Cavallari said.

Not long after, the department's special operations truck pulled up with a trailer in tow. Firefighters Tom Cook and Don Bouse donned their wet suits, stood on the banks of the lake and looked into the dusky water.

``We'll give it a sweep and see what we find,'' said Cook, one of the original members of the dive team and a 16-year department employee.

Cook and his six counterparts at Station 31 are called to any water accident _ whether a boat capsizes in Lake Osborne, a car careens into the dingy canal along State Road 80 or an airplane makes an emergency landing in the Intracoastal Waterway.

They dive in rivers, lakes, sewers and retention ponds, usually in polluted water. One diver said he has a standing prescription for antibiotics because he gets sick so often. For the hazards, dive team members earn an extra 5 percent a month.

Because of the many lakes, canals and bodies of water in Palm Beach County, the specialized talents of these firefighters are needed around the clock.

Last year, Fire-Rescue divers responded to dozens of calls across the county each on a moment's notice. No statistics are available to track the number of people they rescued or bodies recovered.

The divers are regular firefighters with a specialty in more-hazardous operations. And they are charged with more than fishing people from canals and other bodies of water.

``If [someone) falls into a small area such as a storage tank or if a building collapses, then we send in our special operations team,'' said Chief Nigel Baker, Fire-Rescue spokesman. ``They have the [appropriate equipment) to go in and make the rescue.''

While looking for the bicycle last week, Cook spent about 30 minutes making a series of concentric circles, which included a tedious hand search at the bottom of the lake. On his way up be brought the handle of a fishing pole and the rescue hook from a nearby pool.

Before Cook dove into the lake, he grabbed a flashlight then attached a rope called a tender line to himself and left it with his supervisor, Capt. George Odell, on the banks of the lake. The divers eventually called off the search.

Some of the dive team's masks are equipped with two-way radios so the diver and the line tender can talk.

Most of the time, however, the diver and firefighter on the shore communicate about everything from the amount of air left in the diver's tank to the direction of the search.

The divers undergo more intense training than other firefighters and must be recertified annually.

When the team gets paged, quick response is crucial. The first 60 minutes after an accident is called ``the golden hour,'' because it is a diver's best chance to rescue a victim.

But increasingly, rescue divers are concerned about their own health.

Over the years, there has become a growing concern among firefighters about diving in polluted waters. An example, Bouse said, are the vegetable farms along U.S. 441 where numerous chemicals are used to treat the crops, and then run off into the drainage canals.

There have been times when Cook and Bouse have been covered with so much sludge that their colleagues could hardly recognize them.

``You have no idea what's in the water anymore,'' said Bouse, who has been with the department for 15 years and on the dive team for six years.

On other dives, they have found shopping carts, newspaper boxes, and car engines. One diver likened the search to reading Braille.

``When you're in black water, you don't know what is down there,'' Bouse said. ``A lot of time you wake up turtles down there.''

Cook said he travels with a supply of decontaminants he uses to wash with after each dive. He said the department has considered diving suits that cover the entire body but is discouraged because of the cost.